


To the Land of the Gods

by surrealmeme



Series: In the Land of the Gods [1]
Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ash Goes to Japan, Ash Lynx Lives, Character Death Fix, Fix-It, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Redemption, because they deserve peace and happiness, eiji's letter, hinted-at redemption, part of series in which ash and eiji are soft boyfriends doing normal civilian things in japan, sing is a GOOD boy, yut-lung redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-29 01:24:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17193860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surrealmeme/pseuds/surrealmeme
Summary: Catching his breath, Sing walked through the library, scanning the long tables for Ash’s form, and saw a young man slumped over on the table, face pallid, breathing shallow. One of Ash's hands had slipped off the table; his arm hung limply at his side. Sing followed the line of that arm to the steadily growing pool of blood at Ash’s feet.Oh, fuck no, Sing thought.You’re not dying – not here, not now.





	1. Chapter 1

_The New York Public Library?_ Sing thought as he ran. _I’ll need to call a cab way in advance_ and _pay in cash to get to the airport on time. Dammit, Ash, why couldn’t you have just gone to see him yourself?_

Catching his breath, Sing walked through the library, scanning the long tables for Ash’s form. Sing imagined that Ash would be generally relaxed in posture, but with a straight back and just enough tension in his body for lightning-fast reflexes to respond to any potential threat. Instead, what Sing saw was a young man slumped over on the table, face pallid, breathing shallow. Ash’s face rested on an open book – _Islands in the Stream_ , Sing would later find out – and one of his hands had slipped off the table; his arm hung limply at his side. Sing followed the line of that arm to the steadily growing pool of blood at Ash’s feet.

_Oh, fuck no_ , Sing thought. _You’re_ not _dying – not here, not now._

Thankfully, the library was near-deserted, and Sing was able to lug Ash’s unconscious body to a shadowed alley. Sing pulled out his phone and dialed Yut-Lung’s number. As the phone rang and rang, Sing was grateful that Eiji had asked _him_ to take the letter to Ash, rather than Max or a member of Ash’s gang.

“Hello?” Yut-Lung said as a formality.

“Get to the New York Public Library, right now, and bring your best doctor,” Sing said.

“ _Excuse me?_ You are in no position to be making demands of me, Sing Soo-Ling,” Yut-Lung responded in his typical imperious tone.

“I could’ve killed you the other day, don’t you remember? You’re alive so you can pay for everything you did, and that’s gonna start _right now_. Ash is literally bleeding out,” Sing said. “Goddammit, just _get over here_!”

“Fine,” Yut-Lung acquiesced, his voice terse.

As he waited, Sing took a knife from his pocket, pulled Ash’s coat off of him, and cut the garment into long strips for makeshift bandages. The fabric was of high quality and Sing could tell that the coat was expensive.

_You’d better live to get pissed off about your ruined coat_ , Sing thought.

For all his initial haughtiness and griping, Yut-Lung was pure efficiency when he arrived in what was basically an ambulance flanked by a mafia entourage. As his men’s cars blocked the alley from view and guarded those within, Yut-Lung and Sing hoisted Ash onto a gurney that was rolled into the back of the van-turned-ambulance. Immediately, Yut-Lung’s doctor hooked Ash up to an IV drip, took his vitals, and sanitized and redressed the wound. The doctor staunched the bleeding and began arranging a private room for Ash in a Lee-owned hospital.

“Well?” Yut-Lung said once Ash was in surgery. “Are you satisfied?”

“You know, I actually am,” Sing said, “you prissy bitch.”

This comment set off Yut-Lung. How could Sing be so insolent when it was _Yut-Lung_ who had gone to immense pains for Ash, whom he quite loathed? The utter _audacity_ , especially when coming from a small-time Chinatown street gang’s boss to the effective ruler of the entire Lee syndicate.

_And I’m two years older than him!_ Yut-Lung griped. _Whatever happened to respecting one’s elders?_

But for all his complaining, Yut-Lung seemed to develop a rather amiable relationship with Sing. They kept each other civil and even pleasant company in the hospital; they relaxed a little, like the young teenagers they should have gotten to be. It was when the two boys were deep in a discussion about how white people, _much_ unlike the Chinese, neglected to season their food, that Yut-Lung’s doctor announced that Ash was in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.

“An unprecedentedly fast one, too, I’m sure,” Yut-Lung bitterly said, “with how he always clings on to life like a cockroach.”

And Sing Soo-Ling laughed, really _laughed_ , for the first time since Shorter’s death. It was a bright, pure sound that truly did seem fitting of a carefree child. And strangely, Yut-Lung also felt uplifted when he heard it.

“Call me when Ash wakes up – I gotta go take care of this whole mess with Lao,” Sing said, “or text me on WeChat,” he added as a joke.

“As if you can read Mandarin!” Yut-Lung found himself quipping back.

+++

A day passed, and Ash hadn’t yet stirred; Yut-Lung spent that day in the hospital – not by Ash’s side, of course, but in the owner’s suite tucked away on the top floor. Fully dressed but with no intention to step foot out of his rooms, Yut-Lung sat on the sofa and considered the future.

He had seized the Lee syndicate and forged an alliance with the Corsican mafia, although there was no telling what would become of that arrangement now that Golzine was dead. Yut-Lung had never had true malice for Chinatown, only exploiting them to gain favor with Golzine. Making amends with Chinatown would be prudent for Yut-Lung, as that would also make Ash and Cain Blood’s gangs less likely to pose a threat to him. Sing, judging from the hospital, seemed as though he would be amiable to a truce.

_Perhaps the promise of some political maneuvering – having an advocate for Chinatown’s slums elected – would even entice him to an alliance_ , Yut-Lung mused.

Unlike his blond-haired counterpart, Yut-Lung no longer had a driving motivation, a goal that must be attained. He had avenged his mother, disposed of his brothers, and claimed the syndicate as his own. Now, with more power and freedom than he had ever held, he was lost.

Perhaps that was why Yut-Lung agreed to take care of Ash and was considering allying with Chinatown – it not only gave him something to do but also offered a potential friendship. Of course, Yut-Lung himself didn’t quite realize this yet and wrote it all off as pragmatic strategy.

+++

The first thing Ash said when he woke was Eiji’s name. It was a desperate cry, full of fear and uncertainty, and Sing pretended he hadn’t heard it.

“Hi, Ash,” he said, a little awkward.

“Sing,” Ash said in response. “How did I get here?”

“I found you bleeding out at the library and bullied Yut-Lung into setting you up with a room and doctor,” Sing explained.

_“Lee Yut-Lung?”_ Ash repeated. “Why didn’t he just kill me – it would’ve been easy.”

“He’s not gonna be your enemy anymore, Ash,” Sing said, “I made sure of that.”

Ash nodded, still not fully convinced but willing to let the matter slide for now.

“Lao stabbed me, you know,” Ash said in a surprisingly mild tone. “Said it was to protect you or something.”

Sing sighed.

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “He’s not gonna be a problem for me or for you anymore.”

“You killed him?”

“Yeah,” Sing flatly said. “I hated it.”

“You did what was best for you and your guys,” Ash said. “Shorter’d be proud of you.”

“You think so?” Sing said, a melancholy smile slowly making its way across his face.

Ash nodded. For a moment, it seemed as though Sing would carry on their conversation, but he evidently decided otherwise.

“Here,” Sing said, holding out an envelope. “It’s a letter from Eiji; I was trying to get it to you when I found you.”

“Thanks,” Ash said, accepting the letter. When he began to open the envelope, Sing quietly slipped out of the room; as he walked down the hall, Sing pretended he didn’t hear Ash crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! if you're interested, i'm working on another fic in this au (it'll be about ash and eiji doing tourist things in japan) and i think there'll be three fics in this au total (maybe four??)
> 
> if any of you want to read those as they get posted, you can subscribe to/check the series "in the land of the gods" every now and then
> 
> or don't, if you don't want to. either way, i appreciate that you've read this fic


	2. Chapter 2

Remarkably soon after not only getting stabbed but also going through the emotional gauntlet of reading Eiji’s letter, Ash was all business again. Bandages wrapped around his torso, Ash held court from his hospital bed.

“Hey,” Ash casually said as Max walked through the door. “How many people know?”

“That you were stabbed?”

Ash struck Max with a look that said, “No, that I took over the Corsican Mafia and negotiated a marriage alliance with Lee Yut-Lung.”

Max nodded, exasperated smile on his face.

“Five people – me, Sing, Lee Yut-Lung, Shunichi, and Cain Blood,” Max said. “We agreed it’d be better for your guys not to know until you’ve figured out what you’re gonna do.”

Ash nodded.

“Okay,” he said, “that’s prudent. When did you tell Ibe?”

“Last night, right after Sing called me,” Max answered.

“Does Eiji know, too?”

Max slightly frowned.

“Not sure – I didn’t tell him, but maybe Shunichi did, maybe he didn’t,” Max said.

Ash nodded and leaned back on the bed’s several pillows. A considerable reconsideration of plans would be in order, and Ash was unsure where and how to begin. As he pondered, Max grew increasingly concerned at Ash’s silence and apparent unawareness of the word.

“Ash?” he finally said. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Ash said, pulled out of his reverie and sounding a little sluggish. “Can you go over to my apartment and bring me some stuff?” he requested.

“Sure thing,” Max said. “What d’you need?”

“My laptop, glasses, charging cables, and a locked briefcase that should be lying around,” Ash rattled off. “I’ll text you the code to unlock the door.”

“You need them now?”

“If you’ve got some kinda urgent business, doesn’t matter if you do that first,” Ash answered. “But I do need it all by tomorrow morning.

Max nodded.

“See you,” he said. “Get better soon, okay? I’m sure a bunch of people are counting on it.”

“Yeah,” Ash vaguely responded then added, almost instinctively, “thanks, Dad.”

Max left the hospital with a wide grin on his face.

+++

The next subject was Sing, although he was really more like an ally than a subordinate.

“Already up?” Sing said. “That’s bound to make Yut-Lung happy. You know what he said when the doctor said you’d make a full recovery?”

“What?”

Sing tried to hold back his laughter and ultimately failed.

“That you’d hang on to life like a cockroach!”

If Yut-Lung had personally said that to Ash, he would have walked away with a black eye. But when coming from Sing, Ash saw the humour in the comparison and laughed along. That turned out to be a mistake, as Ash’s wound was still highly tender.

 _“Fuck_ ,” Ash cursed under his breath, wincing.

“You’re gonna need to be here for at least three more days,” Sing said. “The doctor said a week, but it’s not like you were gonna give a shit anyway, right?”

Ash agreed with Sing’s inference.

“You know me better than I thought,” Ash said. “You think you can guess what I’m gonna ask you to do now?”

“You need me to arrange your move to Japan, right?”

Ash was surprised; he hadn’t expected Sing to get it right.

“How did you know that?”

“Well, for starters, you and Eiji weren’t even _close_ to as subtle as you thought you were,” Sing said, “and when Eiji was at the airport, he seemed anxious and impatient. He basically said the letter was time-sensitive, too – he asked you to go with him, right?” Sing finished.

Ash nodded his head yes, impressed by Sing’s deductions.

“So, I already took the liberty of booking you a ticket,” Sing continued. “And I can get you a gun if you want – Yut-Lung still owes me, and he’s got hella contacts with the yakuza.”

Ash took a moment to process not only Sing’s statements but also his enthusiasm. Ash had no interest in being a part of gang life again – he was going to finally get away from it – but he knew that he wouldn’t feel safe without a definite means of defense. And that meant a gun.

“Just make sure they understand that I’m not interested in joining,” Ash said. “I’ve already got a set of papers, so you don’t need to get one made.”

Sing nodded, very serious.

“Just one thing,” he said. “What’s gonna happen to your gang now that you’re leaving?”

Ash frowned. That was something he’d overlooked in his eagerness to see Eiji and try to pursue a peaceful life with him.

“Just come back tomorrow with all the stuff you’ve arranged,” Ash finally said, “I’ll have everything worked out by then, written down and signed so no one will dispute it.”

“That sounds an awful lot like a will, you know,” Sing remarked.

Ash smirked.

“Oh, I’m not dying – far from it,” Ash said. “And don’t think for a second that I’m _never_ coming back, so you’d better follow my ‘will’ to the damn letter!”

+++

Following Ash’s talk with Sing, Max came and went, bearing the materials Ash had requested. Sing returned with Ash’s plane ticket and a message from Cain Blood, who said he would also honor Ash’s will. Sing pouted and griped about being treated like a postal service, so Ash snorted and shoved two handwritten copies of his will into Sing’s hands – one to be kept by Sing and the other to be delivered to Cain. Sing flipped Ash off as he went to run his latest errand.

 _My payment for the ticket’s bound to make him forget about that sour mood,_ Ash thought. _I’m even throwing in a generous tip._

Now that all the clerical and vaguely political business was taken care of, Ash only had one last task to complete before he would be able to go to Japan.

He had already gotten Ibe’s phone number from Max; now Ash actually had to call it.

The phone rang once, twice, thrice, four times, and part of Ash hoped that Ibe wouldn’t pick up.

 _It’s late in Japan_ , he rationalized.

Alas, Ibe picked up.

 _“Moshi moshi?”_ he said, then, “Hello?”

“It’s Ash.”

 _“Ash?”_ Ibe repeated. “Are you alright? Max told me you were stabbed.”

“I’m fine,” Ash said. “Does Eiji know?” he quietly asked.

“No,” Ibe said. “He’s distressed enough as it is; it would have been cruel to tell him.”

 _Distressed enough as it is?_ Ash thought. _That’s my fault_.

“Why are you calling, Ash?” Ibe asked. “Not that I’m bothered, of course. But you wouldn’t call without a reason.”

“I…” Ash trailed off at first. It was one thing to make the plans and tentatively think, _I’m going to Japan_ , but entirely another to say the words aloud. That would feel too real, and it was difficult for Ash to let himself acknowledge such major hopes.

“I’m coming to Japan,” he finally said. “Next Monday.”

“That’s wonderful, Ash,” Ibe said. “Do you want to tell Eiji yourself or should I do it?”

Ash couldn’t tell Eiji. Not when he was certain he’d start sobbing the second he heard Eiji’s voice. But at the same time, Ash would not let anyone besides himself tell Eiji.

“No,” Ash finally said. “But I can’t tell him now either. Just… have him come with you to the airport,” Ash requested.

“Alright,” Ibe said. “Good night, Ash. Safe travels.”

And Ash prayed, to a god he hadn’t truly believed in for years, for just that.

+++

It may have felt like years, but Ash’s flight landed in Tokyo a mere few days later. Near-delirious with the knowledge that he was finally free, Ash drifted through customs, mind on only Eiji.

 _Will he be mad? Will he cry?_ Ash thought. _What will_ I _do?_

Ash needn’t have worried, though. Yes, Eiji cried, and so did Ash, but there was no anger. Only relief, joy, love, and hope.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! if you're interested, i'm working on another fic in this au (it'll be about ash and eiji doing tourist things in japan and this is the link https://archiveofourown.org/works/17282858/chapters/40646438) and i think there'll be three fics in this au total (maybe four??)
> 
> if any of you want to read those as they get posted, you can subscribe to/check the series "in the land of the gods" every now and then
> 
> or don't, if you don't want to. either way, i appreciate that you've read this fic


End file.
